Taking Back the Cannonball Run Record (2022)
arnesantics.com
arnesantics.com
I love the Cannonball, I respect the history, but that is bullshit. You can do what you want but at least be self-aware.
Speed may not often cause an accident, but it will be the difference between a bad accident and a fatal one. That is what speed limits are about. Reducing the impact of an accident probably caused by something else. Also realise that amongst the cohort of "people driving" that something else is inevitable, not chance. It is always happening to someone, just perhaps not you that day. If we all drove 160mph road tolls would skyrocket.
You can bring up the autobahn if you like, or the red centre in Australia, but neither of those remotely resemble an American intetstate or the driving culture of the states. The red centre also has a speed limit now.
Okay, I will. 99% of autobahn traffic I have seen drives 200kmph or less. 160 mph is 257.5 kmph - a quarter more than 99% of autobahn traffic.
200 kmph is fast if it's busy, and most cars can't go significantly beyond that. Aiming for 260 is dangerous for folks driving 200, let alone those driving 100 (yes, that is not an uncommon speed - also not in the unrestricted areas).
In other words: bonkers by autobahn standards.
Most people are just trying to get from A to B without any drama, the drama increases significantly as you approach 200. I suspect the median is closer to 160...
And then there is the construction that always put a crimp in things.
I've also lived all over the US. It's my general impression that the "typical" speed on unrestricted stretches of the autobahn and long, flat, rural, stretches of the US interstate system are roughly the same.
It's cool to see M5s and Fiat Alhambras (lol) zooming past at the rev limiter but most people get up to 85mph/136kph and chill out.
Germans love their campers so half the vehicles on the roads are towing caravans and going slowly anyways.
Largely you don’t. You just have to avoid driving like a North American by staying in the right-most lanes unless passing.
Germany isn’t different in that you’re responsible for not hitting what’s in front of you. If you’re on a 2-lane highway and go into the passing lane at 150 to pass the car going 120, for the Bugatti popping up going 250 approaching that manoeuvre, tough, it’s gotta slow down for the 150 vehicle (which will go back in front of the 120 vehicle once the pass is completed because Europe).
Meanwhile in USA/Canada, I’ve seen vehicles going under the speed-limit immediately head for the “fast-lane” right from the on-ramp with absolutely nothing ahead of them to warrant that.
As for safety, I think these folks are safer drivers than many I see on our highways staring at their phones.
Shooting with a gun into a crowd carries a prison sentence. This should too.
doesn’t fly either
The typical “into the crowd” implies that the shooter knew it was almost certain to hit somebody, though, so I don’t think any judge or jury would put much weight into such an argument.
It seems to me that there is really a lot of media out there bragging about committing past crimes, and profiting from it. I don't think it's a good thing, but for whatever reason clearly people are able to do that without repercussions.
This reminds me of the California law banning the use of rap lyrics as evidence in crimes. Much of popular rap music is directly bragging about committing specific crimes and getting away with it, yet those people remain free, and make a lot of money off of it.
- Two datestamped photos in start and finish.
- Unbroken video feed from two cameras.
- A speed stat tracker
- A third party black box GPS tracker.
- Plus circumstantial evidence created during the event.
"In the words of Brock Yates: “When Dan (Gurney) and I got to the Portofino, we agreed that the part of the Cannonball which we were proudest about was the fact that we had bothered no one—we hadn’t jeopardized the safety of anyone, including ourselves. We had driven very fast, but we had driven cleanly, efficiently, and safely.”"
There is a difference between "these speed limits are too low, let's prove it's safe to go faster" and "someone else broke our record? Let's claw it back now that conditions are favourable".
Chernobyl was safe until it wasn't for example. Same for Ford Pinto, or Tesla AutoPilot.
The cannonball teams aren't weaving traffic at 160. They are using scanners, binoculars and multiple pairs of eyes to map out moves before taking them, attempting to get through sticky situations quickly and safely and making up time in open stretches. This is arguably a safer driving strategy than what most soccer moms employ.
You all should try a 'cannonball lite' sometime. When you take a road trip, see how far ahead of an initial Google Maps transit estimate you can get. It is pretty eye opening (and will pretty quickly sell you on the concept of auxiliary gas tanks).